Chalk one up for defense

As Bears defensive players huddled on the Chargers' 1-yard line midway through the fourth quarter of a close game Sunday, they felt like they were on familiar ground. And it had nothing to do with the sod being at Soldier Field.

The Bears clung perilously to a 13-7 lead with 6 minutes 52 seconds left as Doug Flutie jogged onto the field with the game in his aged hands. San Diego's 41-year-old quarterback had just made the Bears' defense look like petrified wood on an eight-play, 74-yard scoring drive.

"He ran through us like we weren't even out there," linebacker Brian Urlacher said of Flutie's first series in relief of dreadful Drew Brees.

It gave Bears coach Dick Jauron flashbacks to the October 1998 day when Flutie had rallied the Buffalo Bills past Jauron's Jacksonville Jaguars defense by scoring on the last play of the game. It gave the veterans on the Bears' defense a captive audience as they huddled at the 1.

Behind them lay 99 yards of open field, lots of room for error and excuses, not to mention growth.

"We just went in the huddle and said to each other, 'This is going to show what kind of defense we are,"' defensive end Phillip Daniels said after the Bears had hung on for a 20-7 victory over San Diego. "We regrouped and said, 'Enough's enough. We can't let it keep happening to us."'

Twice before, against the Saints and the Seahawks, the defense had found itself in a similar spot: Make a stop, win a game. Both times it had failed. More than one Bears defender had said before Sunday that the difference between the Bears being 2-5 and 4-3 could be found in those two fourth-quarter failures. Now they stood poised to deliver victory on the same doorstep that had been known to trip them up.

"There was no panic," cornerback Charles Tillman said. "It was like, 'Let's keep them down here.' How you show character is how you respond to situations like that. The defense responded well."

Just as it did all afternoon.

Flutie completed two short passes before scrambling for a first down, but three plays after that the Bears forced the Chargers to punt.

Then R.W. McQuarters made a nifty 36-yard return to the Chargers' 21, and six plays later Anthony Thomas scored the clincher from 1 yard out with 21 seconds left.

Thomas bumped chests with teammate David Terrell after the touchdown. But it was the defense that stuck out its collective chest furthest after the victory the Bears had to have.

"We quit making mistakes finally, and guys are getting in their gaps," Urlacher said. "Last week we were doing it physically, we were just weak mentally. Now we are starting to do both."

It all started Sunday by stopping the run. The Chargers' LaDainian Tomlinson came in averaging 102.7 rushing yards per game and finished with 61 yards on 16 carries. The Bears' front seven, spearheaded by rookie linebacker Lance Briggs with nine solo tackles and one assist, often closed holes as quickly as they opened.

That created more second- and third-and-long situations that allowed the Bears' secondary to challenge routes more aggressively. Though the Bears didn't sack Flutie or Brees, the coverage from cornerbacks Tillman and Jerry Azumah continued to show the improvement began a week earlier.

Tillman intercepted a pass and deflected two more, while Azumah had two pass breakups and seven solo tackles.

"Same stuff we've been doing wrong, but we did it right," defensive coordinator Greg Blache said.

Tillman also came up with the key special-teams play of the day that set the stage for the Bears' decisive defensive stop. He hustled to down Brad Maynard's punt at the 1, which changed the complexion of the Chargers' play-calling for the game's most critical drive.

"He's got a feel for those kind of things," Jauron said of Tillman. "I was afraid he was going to touch the ball while he was lying on his back in the end zone. He looked like he kept reaching back over. We'll have to talk to him about that."

Jauron also should have plenty to say to Anthony Thomas, and it should begin with the words "thank you." Thomas returned after missing two games with a sprained foot and allowed the Bears to control the game by controlling the clock.

Thomas ran 31 times for 111 yards and two touchdowns, the first one coming on a 1-yard plunge in the second quarter that gave the Bears a 10-0 lead. Nine of Thomas' carries went for first downs that helped the Bears own the ball for a tempo-setting 35 minutes 46 seconds.

Winning the time-of-possession battle gave Bears fans a longer look at why established quarterback Chris Chandler makes this offense work in ways Kordell Stewart couldn't.

Chandler threw one bad pass all day, a floater in the fourth quarter that cornerback Sammy Davis intercepted to set up San Diego's only touchdown drive. Overall, the 38-year-old making his third straight start completed 21-of-30 for 224 yards and took command.

"He's a leader in [the huddle]," said Thomas, playing his first game this year with Chandler. "It's like, 'If you don't know, ask Chandler."'

At the very least, a two-game winning streak has made it appear that Chandler has provided the answer for which a puzzling Bears offense was looking. And Chandler hasn't even had the Bears' best receiver, the injured Marty Booker, as a target.

"We're feeling better and better, [but] you watch the film and you see, I don't want to say we look bad, but there's so much more room for improvement," Chandler said.

Indeed, Dez White dropped a sure touchdown pass in the end zone, pass protection broke down enough for the Chargers to sack Chandler twice, and overall the Bears were still one bad play away from losing a fourth-quarter lead at home to one of the league's worst teams.

Asked if it bothered him that fans may scoff at the Bears' two-game streak because the victories have came against the NFL's cellar dwellers, Urlacher said: "I'm sure that's what's going to be said. That's cool."

What critics say matters less to the Bears than what the standings do, and winning two in a row has made a bold statement, at least in the locker room.

"It's fun out there," Urlacher said. "We just have to keep it going. If we get back to .500, you never know what will happen."